Another ball called for another night of dressing up. Freya watched as Amber was looking through various gowns and jewellery. Freya would be wearing the same dress she wore to Sofia's welcome ball, with a few sewing touch ups. That was when the king called Amber out.
Freya tagged along with Amber and Sofia, and they ended up at the castle jewel room. Turns out as a treat, the princesses could pick a jewel to wear to to the ball. "Come on Freya, let's get picking." said Amber eagerly. "I'm fine with my own bracelet." said the young witch, holding up a lapis lazuli bracelet which was given to her by princess Astrid.
Amber still insisted that Freya help her choose a jewel to wear, even promising to lend her one of her own jewellery in return. It was nothing though, as Amber ended up choosing a huge golden necklace. Sofia ended up choosing a charming bracelet. Just then, Constable Miles came over to inform the king of the royal inspection he had to do. As they all left the jewel room though, no one noticed as the doors closed, a baby griffin just escaped.
In Sofia's bedroom, Freya was sitting next to Sofia and Amber on the floor, using her hand mirror to see her reflection as she tried on her jewellery from her jewellery box. Amber said, "Oh Freya, what you need is more options. These accessories are so last month." "Kind of hard when I only have 2 sets of earrings, 1 hairpin and 1 bracelet.". Amber said, "Don't you have that emerald necklace Hildegard gave you? And plus, I told you, I can lend you mine." 'Wow, the princess who wants everything she sees is willing to share?".
The princess frowned, "If you don't want it you can just say so." she said in a huff. "Alright alright miss princess, I'll accept the offer." said Freya. Amber then changed the topic, saying how the sparkly necklace made her eyes even more sparkly. And when Sofia commented on how she loved the bracelet she picked, Amber suggested they swap jewels. Hearing this, Sofia reluctantly removed her amulet to put on Amber's necklace.
It seems very simple. Freya could swipe Sofia's amulet then and there. She moved to pick it up, but Amber called her and asked if she could try on Freya's bracelet. Freya ran over, and unbeknownst to any of them, a small creature jumped onto the dresser where the amulet was and took it, leaving a scratch behind.
Sofia was distraught when she couldn't find the amulet, and they were all confused at the scratch mark. Freya and Amber went out to search for it. Well, Amber said she was going to get someone to help search. They were just running along when they heard a loud scream coming from the dining hall.
Curious, they went to see what was up, and met up with James and Sofia at the door. There was Violet, who explained in dismay that she had just set down the golden goblets on the table, but all of a sudden, they were gone. Sofia noticed scratches on the table, and remarked that on the table there were the same scratch marks as the one on her dresser.
"What scratches on your dresser?" asked James. "There were scratches on Sofia's dresser when her amulet went missing." whispered Freya. "Your amulet's missing?!" "Yes James, try to keep up." said Amber as she rolled her eyes. Constable Miles entered, and deduced there must be a thief in the castle. After he left though, Sofia said that she would look for the thief herself, as she didn't want to disappoint her father by admitting she lost her amulet.
Amber and James wanted to help too, and Freya poofed outside to inform Cedric. He was with Wormwood, collecting potion ingredients. But every time Freya tried to get a word in, Cedric dismissed her as he kept finding more ingredients. Until they came near to the fountain, where the sorcerer spotted the baby griffin wearing Sofia's amulet.
Cedric tossed the potion ingredients aside, and Freya hurriedly scooped them up and poofed them to Cedric's workshop. Cedric was determined to get the amulet from the griffin. The plan was to freeze the griffin and for Wormwood to swoop in and grab it. Didn't work. The griffin ended up flying out of the way and the spell it Wormwood instead, turning him into essentially a birdsicle.
The sorcerer hastily scrambled to unfreeze the bird, and fell into the fountain while catching Wormwood, then yelling about how he would get the amulet as the baby griffin flew away. He was so determined, that he sang a song about it. It wasn't the first time it happened, but still quite comical to see Cedric singing as he walked out of the fountain.
As the sorcerer was singing about it, he set about making a trap for the griffin in his workshop, planning to lure it with a sparkly ruby, then trapping it with a cage that floated high up. Freya set it up as Cedric shouted at Wormwood to pipe down his squawking. After the song was done, Cedric demonstrated the trap to Wormwood as Freya hovered on her broom at the window of the tower.
After a while, Freya spotted the griffin, wearing a sparkly tiara and Sofia's amulet. She called Cedric, and illuminated her wand, catching the griffin's attention. Cedric told everyone to hide, and Freya poofed to the outside of the workshop. But after hearing shouts and a loud ping, and a "This isn't over griffin!" Freya opened the door to see Cedric in the cage meant for the griffin. She facepalmed.
Freya got the cage off Cedric and poofed somewhere else. She had gotten pretty good at it, but could never poof very far. She ran into Amber who was heading into Queen Miranda's room for some reason. Turns out the queen's new tiara was missing. Amber spotted Sofia in the hall and called her over.
There was more scratches on the dressing table, and a feather. "Could a bird be taking everything?" Sofia wondered out loud. Miranda was surprised. "Everything? What else is missing?". King Roland then entered to inform his wife about the thief in the castle. Funny how the queen was the last person to know anything.
The witch decided to make herself scarce when things got personal. She excused herself out of the room and poofed to Cedric's workshop. Only to see him do one of his most outrageous plans yet. He made a flying machine. It looked absolutely ridiculous. It seemed to be made of a sled, a chair, a plunger, a crossbow and the wings off an old flying carriage. Along with a few levers.
This time, the plan was to chase after the griffin. "Mr Cedric, maybe you should take it easy for a while, I'll go get a pot of tea." "Nonsense apprentice! The plan will definitely succeed this time! Go open up the hatch.". The witch reluctantly obliged and Cedric launched himself out and made the wings on the flying machine work with his wand, and the chase began.
Freya went after them on her broom, and stopped after nearly colliding into the castle at almost every swerve. She dipped down and had an idea. She poofed to her bedroom and took out her silver flower hairpin and added one of her sparkliest gems from her jewel box. Shrugging, she also put on her necklace and bracelet.
She poofed to the chase again and lured the griffin towards her, but Freya facepalmed when Cedric distracted it. Alright, she wasn't helping anymore. With a wave of her wand she transported herself to the ballroom, trying to clear off the glittering blue mist as quickly as possible. "Freeya!" said a voice. The witch turned around to see Sofia. "Where were you? Ooh, good choice of accessories." said Amber.
Freya cleared her throat. "So, any luck with the amulet search?" she asked, not intending to tell them about Cedric's griffin chase. Sofia shook her head sadly, and Amber comforted her. The witch actually felt sorry for her. "You know Sofia, I might have a clue on who took your amulet... and everything else." she said. "Really?" Sofia said in surprise,
"How? It's not like clues can just land at our feet." that was when they heard a loud, "FINNIGAN'S FUNGUS!!!" and Cedric came crashing into the ballroom, smashing his flying machine and sending the ruby meant for the griffin flying over to the girls. "Mr Ceedric!" Sofia exclaimed, rushing over to help him up.
The young witch froze when she saw Sofia pick up the queen's tiara from the wreckage. "My tiara!" said Miranda in surprise. King Roland immediately became stern as he marched over to Cedric. "Cedric, are you the one that's been stealing?" he said seriously. Cedric was really flustered now, "N-n-no! Y-your Majesty I-I-I can explain!" he started, but Constable Miles ordered the guards to seize Cedric.
Cedric spotted Freya and shouted, "You can ask my apprentice! She was with me most of the time!". Constable Miles said, "Is what Cedric said true?" Freya could feel her fingers getting cold, but she confidently said, "Cedric has never stolen anything from the castle." "She's telling the truth! Mr Ceedric isn't the thief." said Sofia. She was holding a clump of fur and a feather in her hand.
"But Princess Sofia, he has your mother's tiara." said Constable Miles. "I was chasing the thief and he dropped it!" Cedric exclaimed. "He didn't do it. Every time there was a theft, there were scratches, feathers and fur." said Sofia. Freya then walked over to Cedric and picked up a feather. "You could say it was Wormwood," the raven squawked loudly, "but the colour of the feathers are different. The scratch patterns are too big for his feet, and neither Wormwood nor Cedric have brown fur.".
Just then, something caught Sofia's eyes. Sticking out from a tablecloth was a swishing lion's tail. "I know who the thief is!" Sofia said as she lifted up the tablecloth. "There he is! The griffin!" sure enough, some missing items were with the baby griffin, who was still playing with the princess' amulet. The king returned the necklace to Sofia, and Constable Miles assured him they would get the baby griffin back in the jewel room.
Everything was a misunderstanding, but Freya was still salty that the king didn't think twice before arresting Cedric, and the fact that the king had even made a mistake of accusing the wrong person in front of pretty much every noble there. The young witch was examining the flying machine and Cedric was a mess about it. "Hey dad, do you think Cedric will give me a ride in his flying machine?" asked James.
"I don't know, but from the looks of it, he's still working out a few kinks." said Roland. James then walked over to Freya, "Like I said last time, you're not riding my broom." she said. "Pleeeeease?" "No." "We could play pirates again." "You're not going to stop until you ride it aren't you?" said Freya finally, and James responded with a smile, "So can I ride it?" "When pigs fly.".
Author's Note:
Sorry if the chapter looks rushed in some parts, I had multiple ideas for how this story could go and they don't mesh together very well. I just put down what I felt would go best for the story and Freya's weird character development. May or may not come back to edit this chapter, but for now this is what I put. Also probably won't update as much in the next few months because school exams. Thx for those still reading my not very well planned fanfiction! 😊